Hi Ian,
"That would be ideal, but unfortunately, pages on the Web that use
summary="" almost always use it incorrectly, with horrible values that
aren't helpful to anyone, "
This a statement of opinion not fact. Please do not continue to assert
this without providing a balanced study of summary use to back it up.
It also assumes that once available to "all users" authors would
continue to use what you assert to be "horrible values". Which does
not follow from your logic of better summaries being provided if they
are visible to all in whatever form.
PS: I have ccd PF as the subject is under active discussion and your
opinions are useful in relation to these discussions.
regards
stevef
2009/2/26 Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>:
> On Wed, 25 Feb 2009, David Poehlman wrote:
>>
>> could @summary not be taught to display to all?
>
> That would be ideal, but unfortunately, pages on the Web that use
> summary="" almost always use it incorrectly, with horrible values that
> aren't helpful to anyone, and thus we could never get browser vendors to
> actually do this.
>
> Having whatever solution we _do_ use, e.g. <caption>, be visible to all
> users from the beginning, ensures that all users get a better experience
> because bad summary="" text won't be created.
>
> (Authors typically write bad summary="" text for the same reason they
> write bad alt="" text -- they don't understand what they are doing, and
> have no way to test it. Visible text, they _do_ have a way to test.)
>
> Note that in HTML5, <caption> has been redefined to clearly include in its
> scope all the material that in HTML4 was only appropriate in summary="".
>
> --
> Ian Hickson Â Â Â Â Â Â Â U+1047E Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â )\._.,--....,'``. Â Â fL
> http://ln.hixie.ch/ Â Â Â U+263A Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â /, Â _.. \ Â _\ Â ;`._ ,.
> Things that are impossible just take longer. Â `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
>
>
--
with regards
Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG Europe
Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium
www.paciellogroup.com | www.wat-c.org
Web Accessibility Toolbar -
http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html